I think I ended up as Forbes' business travel blogger because I’m the only Wharton MBA to become a travel writer. I grew up in New England and worked in finance in Tokyo before B-school. Later I moved to Los Angeles to work in the film industry.
In 1998, stunned by my only ever layoff, I began exercising skills (and, let's be frank, pleasures) I’d long left dormant: writing and traveling. A decade and a half later: so far, so good. In addition to Forbes, I’ve been published from Travel+Leisure and the Los Angeles Times to dozens of Lonely Planet titles. I can speak Japanese and French, read Korean menus and embarrass myself in Spanish, Italian and Chinese.
And I continue to polish my business chops with cross-cultural consulting work for companies across the US. In my most traveled year, I logged over 140,000 air miles.
You can see more on my personal blog, wheres-andy-now.com.

The Academy Awards And The Hotel Next Door: By The Numbers

The Academy Awards aren’t just Hollywood’s biggest night – they’re one of the world’s biggest media events and a massive, never-ending job to produce. In honor of the 85th Academy Awards, Sunday February 24th at the Dolby Theatre, here are some stats from Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which awards the Oscars, and the Loews Hollywood Hotel next to the theater, home to the press rooms where newly-minted Oscar-winners meet the media, as well as the star-studded Governor’s Ball. Click on the slide show for a sample, and see the full list below.

About the hotel: the 20-story Loews Hollywood Hotel was built specifically to house the photo and media centers during the Academy Awards ceremony; the indoor corridor connecting it to the Dolby Theatre is called Winners’ Walk. While the hotel is exclusively used for the Oscars this weekend, the rest of the year it’s a sophisticated, central stay for the rest of us, with views of the Hollywood sign, steps from the Hollywood Walk of Fame and reachable by subway (yes, LA has one). And like those starlets on the red carpet, it’s about to get a makeover, approximately $30 million worth.

Outside of Oscar season, visitors can also tour the Dolby Theatre (from $15 per adult).

5,856 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

3,300 audience capacity for the Academy Awards ceremony at the Dolby Theatre.

3,000 credentialed media covering the Oscars.

2,856 Oscar statuettes presented since the first Academy Awards.

1929 year of the first Academy Awards ceremony.

750 limousines.

632 rooms and suites at Loews Hollywood Hotel. During the Oscars they’re fully occupied by nominees, presenters, production crew and more. Those Oscar-patterned curtain backdrops you see in interviews and photos are set up for the occasion.

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